Christie’s London Bests Own Contemporary Record

LONDON—Powered by a trio of artworks that exceeded £10 million apiece, Christie’s Postwar and Contemporary Evening sale reached £86,241,600 ($171,879,508), its highest tally for a European auction in that category. The result fell within its pre-sale estimate of £80–115 million.

“Almost all of our guarantees were profitable,” said Marc Porter, president of Christie’s. “The market ended up being as strong as we hoped it would be.” The evening's top three lots all had guarantees.

Eighteen lots exceeded £1 million, and 30 made over $1 million. Only ten of the 58 lots offered failed to find buyers, for a svelte 17 percent buy-in rate by lot and 16 percent by value.

The casualties included Lucio Fontana’s fantastic but pricey celestial Concetto Spaziale from 1964, for which bidding cracked at £8 million pounds (estimate on request, in excess of £8 million). The work last sold at auction at Christie’s London in December 1996 for £397,000.

But the huge price for Francis Bacon’s small-scale but power-packed and uber-distorted triptych Three Studies for Self Portrait from 1975 sold to an anonymous telephone bidder for £17,289,250 ($34,457,475) against an estimate on request in excess of £10 million, making it the seventh-most expensive Bacon sold at auction. Tonight’s seller bought the work from Galerie Claude Bernard in Paris in 1976, and it carries the pedigree, rarity, and quality that this market responds to.

Jeff Koons’s much-hyped 9.5-ton sculpture Balloon Flower (Magenta), in high chromium stainless steel from 1995–2000, hit a record £12,921,250 ($25,752,051), topping the mark set last November at Sotheby’s New York when Hanging Heart (Magenta/Gold) from 1994–2006 made $23,561,000. It was one of seven artist records set tonight. However, the bidding — against an unpublished estimate in excess of £12 million pounds — did not fly as high as some expected.
   
The other £10 million flyer was Lucian Freud’s relatively frumpy Naked Portrait with Reflection from 1980, which features a reflected image of the artist’s feet behind the composition. The painting sold to a telephone bidder for £11,801,250 ($23,519,891), the second highest price for the artist at auction.

The action resumes tomorrow night at Sotheby’s.

Judd Tully is Editor at Large of Art+Auction.